Means for the interchange of messages between a station and a moving car.



O. H. & J. L. SMITH. MEANS FOR THE INTERCHANGE 0F MESSAGES BETWEEN ASTATION AND A MOVING GAR.

APPLICATION FILED AUG.18, 1913. 1,083,866, Patented Jan. 6, 1914.

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0. H. & J. L. SMITH. MEANS FOR THE INTERGHANGE 0F MESSAGES BETWEEN ASTATIONAND A movme GAR. APPLICATION FILED AUG.18, 1913.

1,083,866, Patented Jan. 6, 1914.

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UNITED STATES PATEN T OFFTCE.

OLIVER E. SMITH, 0F SLATEEORD, IPENNSYLVANIA, AND JOSIAH I1. SMITH, O15SOUTHERN PINES, NORTH CAROLINA.

MEANS FOR THE INTEBCI-IANGE OF MESSAGES BETWEEN A STATION AND A MOVINGCAR.

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Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed August 18, 1913.

Patented Jan. ti, 1914. Serial No. 785,392.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, OLIVER H. SMITH, a citizen of the United States,and a resident of Slateford, in the county of Northampton and State ofPennsylvania, and Josnxn L. SMITH, a citizen of the United States, and aresident of Southern Pines, in the county of Moore and State of NorthCarolina, have invented a new and Improved Means for the Interchange ofMessages Between a Station and a Moving Car, of which the following is afull, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to mechanism of the character set forth in ourprevious Patent, No. 1,042,983, issued to us on October 29, 1912.

Among the objects of this invention is to provide a means of simple andmore reliable nature for the interchange of messages than has heretoforebeen possible.

More specifically stated, we provide a system of tubing leading from arailway station or other building in the proximity to a railway track,such tubing being adapted to deliver carriers to and from a car, suchcarriers being received and deposited by the car as itmoves along.

The foregoing and other objects of the invention and the means forcarrying out such objects will be hereinafter more fully described andillustrated in the accompanying drawings forming a part of thisspecifloat-ion in which like characters of reference indicatecorresponding parts in all the views, and in which Figure 1 is a sideelevation of the principal operating parts, the car and stat-ion beingin section; Fig. 2 is a side view of the carrier station partly insection on the line 2-2 of Fig. 3; Fig. 3 is an elevation at rightangles to Fig. 2 partly in section on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2; and Fig. 4is a plan view of a carrier arm hinged to the car.

The several parts of the device may b made of any suitable materials andthe relative sizes and proportions, as well as the general design of thesame, may be varied to a considerable extent without departing from thespirit of the invention hereinafter specifically claimed.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, we show at 10 a fragment ofa railway station or signal tower along which a car 11 is adapted tomove on a railway track 12.

As in our previous patent above noted we provide tubes 13 and letleading from and toward the building 10 respectively, and communicatingwith the compartment of the building indicated at 10 in proximity to thestation master or operator. Adjacent the outer ends of the tubes 13 and14: we provide what may be termed a carrier station or a place wheremessage carriers 15, shown in the form of hollow balls, may betransferred either from one tube to the other, from one tube to the car,or from the car to the other tube. This carrier station comprises theflaring mouth 16 at the upper end of the tube 14, and a hood 17 oversaid mouth 16 and through which the delivery end of the pipe 13 passes.The hood 1? may be supported in position by flexible arms 18 extendingupwardly from the ground or from the tube 14.

The carrier 15, which the station master wishes to despatch to a movingcar, will be dropped by him into the tube 13, whence it passes to and isreceived by a cradle 19 pivoted at 20 within the hood. Said cradle atits lower end is provided with a fork which normally lies or reacheswithin the end of the tube 13 in the path of the carrier. A light coilspring 21 may be employed for the purpose of maintaining this normalposition. The carrier, when received by the cradle, swings the latterdownwardly, as shown, where it will be received by a catcher 22 at theouter end of an arm 23 hinged to the car at 24. The relation of thecatcher to the carrier station is indicated in Fig. 2, and the arrowshows the movement of the catcher toward said station. The catcherincludes, in connect-ion with the outer end of said arm, a pivoted jaw25, the front end of which passes over the top of the carrier 15,guiding the carrier relatively rearwardly into a shallow pocket orgroove 23 at the outer end of the arm. The carrier will be caused tocome to rest in said pocket by means of a stop 26 and will be embracedat its upper side by a convex portion 27 of the jaw so that when the arm23 is swung upwardly toward the side of the car, as shown in dottedlines in Fig. l, the carrier will roll freely along said groove 23 untilit strikes a stop 28 at a point designed to guide the carrier into achute 29 leading into a basket 30 within the car. It will be understood,therefore, that the carrier, when received in the pocket 23, will not begripped by the jaw but will be free to roll therefrom. A spring 31 onone side of the pivot 32 and a spring 33 on the opposite side thereoftend to maintain a substantially uniform position of the jaw and permitsufiicient flexibility of the catcher for its purposes. The arm 23 isadapted to be swung upwardly toward the car by means of a bell crank 34and a hand lever 35 is connected thereto by means of a link 36.

For a message to be delivered from the car, the messenger in the carwill lift the arm so that he may insert the message carrier 15 between apair of fingers 37 at the rear end of the catcher and the rear end ofthe jaw, as shown in Fig. 2. Said fingers 37 are sufficiently light andflexible to permit the carrier held thereby to be snapped therefrom bythe force of the jaw when subjected to the carrier to be received in thepocket 23, as above described. In other words, the carrier to bedelivered from the cradle 19 will lift sufliciently upon the front endof the jaw to cause the rear end thereof to force the other carrierthrough the fingers 37 and into the mouth 16 of the receiving tube 14.Said carrier rolls along the tube It and is delivered therefrom to thestation master by means of the devices covered by our previous patentabove referred to.

A stop 38 is adapted to slide inwardly at the delivery end of the pipe13, as shown in Fig. 2, for the purpose of retaining within the tube 13acarrier delivered into said tube after the one which is received by thecradle has been delivered. Since the cradle occupies normally itselevated position so as to receive a carrier, the stop 38 is normallyretracted out of the path of the tube 13, said retracting beingaccomplished by means of a finger 39 above the pivot 20 of the cradle,said finger cooperating with a pair of studs 38 at the adjacent end ofsaid stop. When, however, the cradle swings downwardly under the weightof a carrier, the finger 39 will cause the stop to slide into theposition shown. By reason of this construction, the station master maydeliver a carrier into the tube 13 for one car and almost immediatelythereafter he may follow it up with another carrier which will beretained in the tube 13 and be received and delivered by the cradleafter the first carrier has been delivered.

If it should be desired that a carrier containing a message deliveredthrough the tube 13 is to be returned to the one who has sent it withoutbeing delivered to a car, the operator may draw upon a finger piece 40within his reach, and through a system of bell cranks and connectionsacting upon a lever 41, he may release the carrier so that it may dropinto the tube 145. When the lever 41 is operated in the direction of thearrow, Fig. 3, it will act upon a bell crank 19 causing the cradle to belifted so suddenly as to dislodge the carrier, and thereafter the cradlewill be restored by the spring 21 to normal position.

It will be observed that in addition to the flexibility of the arms 18above referred to, we provide curved guides L2 and 43 along the edges ofthe carrier station parts so as to insure the guidance of the catchermechanism into proper operative relation to the carrier station for thepurposes of the invention.

Having thus described our invention, we claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent 1. In a device of the character set forth, thecombination with stationary delivery and receiving tubes, the mouth ofthe delivery tube being located in vertical alinement with the mouth ofthe receiving tube, of means movable into and normally held in the mouthof said delivery tube and adapted to receive therefrom a messagecarrier, said carrier means being adapted to swing downwardly, afterreceiving the carrier, away from said delivery tube, a stop controlledby the mouth of the means just described so as to guard the mouth of thedelivery tube, and means carried by a car to receive the first mentionedcarrier.

2. In a device of the character set forth, the combination with deliveryand receiving tubes having their outer ends adjacent each other, a hoodassociated with the outer end of the delivery tube above the mouth ofthe receiving tube, said hood being spaced upwardly from said receivingtube, a cradle pivoted within said hood on a horizontal pivot, means tonormally hold the cradle in alinement with the delivery tube whereby itwill receive a message carrier delivered therethrough, and by which itwill gravitate out of alinement with the tube, and means carried by thecar to receive said carrier from the cradle while passing between thehood and the mouth of the receiving tube.

3. In a device of the character set forth, the combination with deliveryand receiving tubes having their outer ends adjacent each other and inproximity to a railway track, of means to receive a message carrier fromthe delivery tube and support it just above the mouth of the receivingtube, and a catcher carried by a car adapted to receive said carrier asthe car passes said tubes, said catcher comprising a pivoted arm adaptedto extend between the adjacent ends of the tubes aforesaid in ahorizontal position, and a jaw pivoted on a horizontal pivot upon saidarm, said arm and jaw being provided with sockets to loosely receivesaid carrier.

4. The combination with delivery and receiving means of a cradle adaptedto receive a message carrier from the delivery means and hold it insuspension, and a catcher carried by a car, said catcher comprising anarm adapted to move below the said message carrier, a jaw pivoted abovesaid arm whereby the carrier is received between the arm and the jaw,and a temporary holding device on another part of the arm wherebyanother carrier will be discharged from the catcher into the receivingmeans simultaneously with the dehvery of the first menioned carrler tothe catcher.

In testimony whereof we have signed our 15 names to this specificationin the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

OLIVER E. SMITH. JOSIAH L. SMITH. Vi tnesses GEORGE E. SOI-IILLING, WM.J. TRANsmi.

Worries of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, byaddressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. 0.

